[Resolved] Add command to execure program.

Kold

Hi.

I have just installed Fedora Core 3, and had a problem with not being able to update firefox from version 1. I took the easy option and unselected it as an added package 🙂

Having installed the latest firefox, there is no command 'firefox' to run the program, and i cant alter the 'shortcut' to run firefox in the GUI.

I installed it to /usr/local/bin/firefox, not sure if i should have done so. I have been using linux for all of an hour now 🙂

How can i do this?
Thanks!
K.

id10t

Did you compile it from source or install it from a package? If it was a package, and you extracted it was a firefox directory there? Or did you install teh package with apt, rpm, installpkg, yast or some other package management tool?

Edit - check www.linuxnewbie.org (yes, i know it is justlinux,com but I'm a waaay old timer from there, and the old dns still works, so...)

Anyway, LNO is very helpful

dalecosp

Hmm, what WM?

Fedora ... I guess that's KDE? Can't imagine you can't make a launcher in KDE, but I've never tried KDE meself.

How about a terminal?

#/usr/local/bin/firefox &

🙂

Kold

Its GNOME, if thats a WM :queasy: I just recognise it being compared to KDE lol.

What does the & on the end of the command do? Shouldnt it open up a webpage called &?

It shows:
[1] 6028

Then:
[1]+ Done

I did try using alias firefox=/usr/local/bin/firefox/firefox but aliases seem to clear themselves every time the ternimal is closed.

Any other ideas?
Thanks!

thorpe

did your alias work though? to save an alias, put it in your .bashrc file, then run

. .bashrc

hope that helps. im only new to it myself.

Kold

Yes, the alias worked.

Does bashrc run on startup? I guess I'll see when I try it :-)

Thanks for the help.

thorpe

.bashrc runs when you start a terminal. it should be located in your home dir.

dalecosp

Shells (sh/bash/csh/tcsh/ksh/zsh/ etc) read a resource file (somethingrc) when invoked, unless told not to or in certain other situations.

The & is a job control operator, and sends the job into the "background". When it says "[1] 6028" it's telling you that the shell is running your command as its number one background job under PID number 6028. If it returned immediately, most likely it was an error.

If you run the firefox command without the &, then stderror would be directed to your terminal and you'd see what the error might be. Not that it's a big deal, although it might be ... depends on what the error is, of course.

OK, so RH is GNOME and hmm, its SUSE that's KDE out of the box? Technically, GNOME and KDE are "desktop environments", which mean that they are WM's with additional programs and features (or cruft, depending on your slant for that sort of thing). If you like toolbars and icons, helper apps, etc. then it saves you the trouble of finding all those toys yourself ...

It's been a little while since I used GNOME (I'm into XFCE now), but IIRC, it's a matter of right-clicking on the gnome-panel and "adding a launcher" ... much the same as "creating a new shortcut" in that "other" OS ... you'll have to pick an icon and issue a command line, etc. (I don't think the launcher needs the "&") ...

HTH,

Kold

Thanks for the info.